The mining industry's chief lobby group says there are still corporate "laggards" when it comes to ensuring mining communities get a fair share of benefits from the resources boom.

The comments by Minerals Council chief executive Mitch Hooke come as a study shows the resources industry spent $35 billion on community infrastructure, indigenous contractors and local suppliers in the 2011-2012 financial year.

That is $14 billion more that the $21 billion the industry is estimated to have paid in company tax and royalty payments in the same year.

The research by the corporate social responsibility consultants Banarra has been released as the political debate over the proposed repeal of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) hots up.

Mr Hooke says despite the massive spending there are still gaps in communities where the mining industry needs to do a better job.

"Communities are voting with their feet, and they're actually picking on the companies and identifying the companies that they'd like to be a part of their community," Mr Hooke said.

"So if you extrapolate that across the industry as a whole, you'd come to the conclusion that we've got some laggards and they need to pick up their act if they're going to be part of the new equation."

But Mr Hooke said the spending was not a "philanthropic exercise" to appease critics of the mining industry.

"There still has to be a business case to it. But the benefits of that community investment and that community contribution, they extend beyond the direct benefits of the company," he says.

"And so therefore there's knock on effect to the community as a whole."

And Mr Hooke said the mining industry was committed to assessing infrastructure spending despite concerns the investment phase of the mining boom is peaking.

"There's a correlation between the extent of economic activity and the level of investment. But it's not going to fall off the edge of a cliff, it's coming off down the other side," he says.

"I think you've got to have the social license. You've got to have the confidence of the communities in which you're operating and the business case for investing in those communities, not only as a source of skills and as a source of goods and services and supplies, but also confidence that the mining industry is part of their local community and therefore part of their quality of life."

CFMEU general president Tony Maher says while resources companies may have spent nearly $35 billion in local communities, the figure does not represent a genuine investment in their future.

"They've included the costs of doing business, and that includes every dollar that they pay a contractor or a supplier to build and operate their operations," Mr Maher says.

"So that's $32.3 billion worth of that figure, plus there's land access payments, because they operate mines on other people's lands.

Mr Hooke agrees with critics who believe spending on social infrastructure is something the mining industry should be doing anyway.

"Well I agree. We agree wholeheartedly," he said.

"The argument is, from the former government, was that we weren't doing it. So we agree that we should be investing in those communities.

"We agree that a social license to operate is a fundamental platform for the manner of our business, and we agree there's a very strong business case for having vibrant and strong communities."

Mr Hooke also agrees attitudes to community spending had changed in mining company boardrooms during the resources boom.

"It's almost been a renaissance over the last decade or so," he said.

"They had a bit of an epiphany. Even our harshest critics will tell you that there's been a massive transformation in the way the industry operates. The cheer squad of enthusiasts will always keep prompting us to do better and that's a good thing."

The Labor Party and the Greens have pledged to oppose the repeal of the MRRT, which replaced the more controversial Resource Super Profits Tax introduced by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.